


Little Talks

by thegingermidget



Category: Ghostbusters (2016)
Genre: F/F, Fluffy, Lesbians, Lesbians Everywhere, Patty is so tired of this, Patty is the level headed ghostbuster, Patty is the only sane person, clueless!Erin
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-19
Updated: 2016-08-19
Packaged: 2018-08-09 20:27:05
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,054
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7815922
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thegingermidget/pseuds/thegingermidget
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>After witnessing Holtzmann's attempts at flirtation with Erin fail once again, Patty decides it is time these two face the facts.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Little Talks

"Hey, guys how'd it go?"

The strains of "Girls Just Wanna Have Fun" were echoing through the ghostbuster's firehouse abode as Erin Gilbert looked up from her book at the new arrivals.

Abby and Patty had pulled up to the firehouse long after midnight, looking better than one might expect for two people who had been hunting ghosts long into the evening. Their coveralls were completely free of ectoplasm, though Abby's had a spot of something that looked like mustard, and their hair was entirely un-mussed. The two women sitting across from one another at the lab table were unlikely to notice their appearances.

For the millionth time, Holtzmann eyed Gilbert from behind her goggles as she kicked her leg up onto the table and sang into her plasma wrench. Her attempts at seduction, while glorious and obvious, had failed to elicit anything more than a small chuckle or a dubious glance from her coworker across the lab table.

Patty had had enough of this. She pulled Gilbert into another room and sat her down, not able t believe she was actually going to have this conversation. "Alright, you have got to stop leading her on like this."

"Leading who, where?"

Patty looked up to heaven. "Do you need glasses? Or does Holtzmann need to take off her goggles so you get a better view of those 'I want you' eyes she's always flashing at you."

Erin had no idea what she was talking about.

"I haven't said anything before because, well I just met you people and I assumed you were already together. I have never in my life seen two people-"

Erin's mouth hung wide open. "I'm sorry, what? Me and Holtzmann?" She could picture the blonde cocking finger guns at her in the next room over at the sound of her name. "What makes you think Holtzmann is... what do you think she's doing?"

Patty stood akimbo and stared her down. "Now I know you must be deaf too because you haven't been hearing a word I've said. Or has your pale ass never been flirted with before?"

Somehow, the reality of what Patty was trying to say to Erin hadn't managed to sink in until this moment.

"Now I suggest you talk to the girl before she sets the whole building on fire which would be ironic considering this is a fire house..." The taller woman glanced around, getting a little sidetracked. "I wouldn't have said anything at all but I realized that you too need to talk this out before Holtzmann gets her hopes up. I realize now that you didn't mean to get her hopes up, but if you're not interested you'd better set her down gently before she gets hurt."

Erin's face fell, unreadable.

"So do you? Have feelings for her? You want me to start letting her know you don't feel the same way?" Patty's voice became surprisingly gentle.

Erin hadn't noticed her foot had begun tapping a frantic morse code on the floor. Her arms were crossed and she was sweating. In grade school she had developed a nervous habit of giggling when she felt uncomfortable. She mentally willed herself not to do it now, but was failing tremendously.

"I can't tell if that seizure you got going on is a yes or a no." Her eyebrows had risen high up to her kinky black locks. "All I'm saying is, you two need to communicate using some words besides the lyrics to 'Hit Me With Your Best Shot'-"

"I only know the chorus!"

"I don't care if you are Pat Benatar's ghost! Actually I would care, 'cause that's my job, a job I've been doing a lot more lately since this situation's gotten so out of hand that you've got me and Abby spending hours in Brooklyn on a T2 shadow apparition that really could have been dealt with in fifteen minutes just so we don't have to deal with your blind ass and her lovesick ass." She said all this impressively without stopping for air.

Erin nodded. "Ok. Yeah, I'll... I'll talk to Jillian."

She peeked her head outside the door . The room they'd been standing in was a glorified broom closet, though Erin hadn't noticed how closet they'd been standing. Patty nearly knocked her to the ground as she came passed her. 

After hastily readjusting herself and assuming a stance she hoped was inviting and flirtatious, Erin made her way back towards Jillian.

The blonde was gently headbanging to "Lucky Star". It was clear she was getting tired as her lips pursed in concentration over a coiled web of copper wiring.

 _Ok,_ thought Erin, _I can do this._

Her mouth, lungs, and vocal chords didn't seem to agree. 

Her voice was choked up. Holtzmann looked up at her, and Erin giggled. Damn that nervous habit. She sounded like a chipmunk or a drugged up dolphin. Jillian only smiled sleepily, before a moment of recognition and whirring to life.

"Ah, Erin! Just the woman I wanted to see." All of Holtzmann's tiredness had vanished when she realized Gilbert had returned. "I have just made the finishing touches on a spectral vocoder I've been designing with you in mind, it takes the lovely frequency of your natural voice and converts it to a frequency lab trials have shown to-"

"Holtzmann," Gilbert tried to interrupt, but Jillian had taken another sip of coffee and it appeared she could go on for hours.

"-but with a few modifications and the data from our recently collected buddies over there I've been able to calculate the desired intensity needed to destabilize the corporeal forms-"  
"Holtzmann." Erin tried again, louder this time. With one solid hand on her shoulder, Holtzmann waved the device she was working on in her other hand. 

Now, as a scientist Erin respected her colleague's work immensely, and as a friend and fellow ghostbuster she trusted Holtzmann with her life. Despite this, Erin's eyes widened to the size of ping pong balls and she drew her neck as far from that strange device as it could go without requiring her to run away.

"Jillian!" Erin shouted, but it was too late. Holtzmann clasped the mechanism around her neck and the device clicked into place. It fit perfectly, but Erin was too scared to move let alone say a single word to test it out.

Jillian had finally shut up and admired her handiwork.

"Alright my beauty, this beauty is ready to rock and roll." Erin felt her checks go furiously red.

After rummaging through a cart full of tools and strange metal parts, Holtzmann retrieved a smooth, silver circle like a hub cap and handed it to her. In it, she saw the device the way it was meant to be seen: it was like a necklace, with copper coils bunched and crushed into gleaming spirals and soldered to a centerpiece which contained a small orange light as a face for the weapon, which is what it was designed to be.

She also caught a glimpse of her own surprised expression.

"Ya like it?" Erin was still scared to open her mouth, for fear of how the vocoder might attempt to perform its designed function.

"Oh, don't worry it's not on." Holtzmann read her mind and showed her that there was a small switch on the bottom of the central mechanism that turned the light on and made it operational. She even remembered to turn it off to let Erin speak.

"It's…" _beautiful,_ was what she wanted to say. _You're beautiful, the way your mind works is beautiful, and what you can do with your hands and your mind astounds me._ "great. I can't wait to see how it works.

She looked into Jillian's eyes. Someone else might not have noticed how the playful glint in her eyes dimmed slightly, but she kept an invincible smile on her face as always.

"Great, I'm glad you like it." She fastened the ties on her eccentric kimono and slumped into a chair, which did not provide her the support she was expecting and nearly deposited her on the ground. 

"Listen, Jillian, I don't know if you've noticed the way Abby and Patty have been absent lately, but- well, Patty seems to think- I mean she's under the impression that… She thinks you've been flirting with me." There was a tightness in Erin's throat that had nothing to do with the piece of ghost hunting equipment clasped around it.

Holtzmann bit her lip and nodded slowly. She arched herself between the cabinet behind her and the lab table her boots were occupying. Erin had a hard time tearing her eyes away from those lips to make eye contact again with Jillian. Her eyes really were pretty when they weren't covered up by those hideous goggles.

"That's because I am."

"You what?"

Her boots left the table and she sat up. "You really haven't noticed?"

Erin's hand found its way to the device around her neck subconsciously.

"No," she said in a small voice. 

"I was pretty sure it was obvious, I mean…" she gestured to where Abby and Patty were probably hiding upstairs, "I guess it was, but umm'" 

Erin realized she had never seen the scientist at a loss for words like this before. She was like a completely different person, bereft of her usual bravado.

"Not to me, I guess. I've never really. Well I guess I've never really thought about it like that."

Holtzmann was trying in vain to collect her usual composure. "Well, if you don't swing that way, that's fine. No harm, no foul. I'll back off completely-"

"Holtzmann."

Jillian looked like she was a video tape being rewound, trying to take back everything she'd said and done since they'd met.

"I'll be a new me. I swear, if I'd known you weren't interested, I wouldn't have let this go on so far. Damn, I mean, I must have been as blind as you not to realize you didn't like me that way-"

"Jillian." Holtzmann stopped at the sound of her first name. "I meant that… well, I've never really thought of-" she stopped herself from saying girls, she was an adult, damn it. "women that way." She paused not sure where she was going with this train of thought just yet, and then panicking because she realized she must sound pretty stupid with all this stuttering, which in turn only made her less sure of what she wanted to say.

"I like you, Jillian." she said finally. Of this, she was sure. "Would you want to go out with me? Like," She felt like a teenager phrasing it this way, but in the moment she saw no other option. "Like a date?"

Holtzmann mistook the pause as a sign of discomfort and became defensive. "It's fine. There's no need for you to pity me, I'm a big girl. I'll fight some ghosts, put on my big girl coveralls, and get over it."

"No. We're going on a date. You and me. A restaurant or the movies or whatever you want to do because honestly I haven't been on too many dates before and I feel like you might have more experience in that area than I do." Erin struggled to get her train of thought back on track. "I've never let myself think of other women- of you that way. I was always the weird girl in high school, I wasn't about to subject myself to more torment because I liked girls, so… I haven't thought about it too much, but… if you want to give dating a try, I think it could work. You are an amazing scientist. Smart and- and one of my best friends and- and beautiful… really… you have really nice hair and your eyes are really blue. Have they always been that blue?"

Jillian bit her lip again. "Oooooh…" she sang. "I think someone has a crush…"

Reflexively, Erin tensed up. "What? I mean, you had a crush on me first. You practically begged me to ask you out."

The boots were back on the table again and her arms were folded languidly behind her head. "Yeah," Holtzmann admitted. "but still."

"Shut up." Erin said with an eye roll. "So, Friday night? eight-ish?"

"Sounds like a plan, Chiquita."

**Author's Note:**

> My first non-Star Wars fic on here! Started out as a few ideas and a few headcanons as to how would they actually resolve the sexual tension Holtzmann is trying to create with Erin Gilbert (and literally every woman on screen and in the audience). I saw the movie yesterday and liked it way more than I expected to!


End file.
